


Children in the Corn

by degradedpsychotic



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Demons, Gen, Horror, Monsters, corn maze, daichi voice: YOU WANNA SEE SUM REEL SPEED, i guess there's ships if you squint, someone help Ukai deal with this, the graphic depiction of violence isn't actually that violent but just in case, there is no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/degradedpsychotic/pseuds/degradedpsychotic
Summary: Ukai raises a brow, pinching his cigarette in his teeth as he crosses his arms. “Hell no. You’re not getting me into a cornfield.”Daichi frowns, his headache throbbing briefly as he realizes that he’s going to have to play the role of chaperone for the rest of the team. “Why not?”“Corn demons,” Ukai says, as if he was pointing out something as obvious as the heavy full moon.“Corn demons,” Daichi repeats slowly, incredulous.“Yup."
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Children in the Corn

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyyyy I don't know why this is my first haikyuu fic when I've been in the fandom since day one but oh well! Hello fandom! Happy Halloween! 
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> TW: swearing (that's why it's rated T sorry) and a couple brief mentions of blood and injuries. If you live in the midwest, you know exactly what's gonna happen, but please act surprised.
> 
> I listened to the hallway theme from Luigi's mansion on loop for the entire two+ hours that this took me to write. Here's a link if you want:  
> [careful, it's spoopy!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zIJ2IfjWJk)

Post-practice conversations usually take a similar route every time. They talk about upcoming games, tournament lineups, the latest in professional volleyball, food, where to acquire food, and how quickly they can finish cleaning up so they can go get food. It’s all the same predictable lines, and Daichi is in the middle of talking to Suga about maybe stopping off at the grocery store on the walk home to pick up some things for a team-sized hot pot, when Hinata bounds his way over with his fists clenched in front of his chest and his face contorted with the effort to reel in his excitement. The rest of the team follows, but the only ones who look just as excited are Noya and Tanaka.

Which means whatever Hinata has to say, it’s going to give Daichi a headache.

And that weekend, as they all pile out of the team bus that they’ve “borrowed” for this excursion, the headache is all too real.

Halloween had landed on the perfect night. The weather was mild, the sky clear, the moon full, and the holiday itself on a Saturday. The drive had been twenty minutes further down the valley with Ukai at the wheel, and their single chaperone lights a cigarette and leans against the side of the bus as they all gather in an excited mass of chatter. The whole team hadn’t come; Yachi, Kiyoko, and Takeda-sensei had passed on the experience, as well as Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinoshita. Yamaguchi and Tsukkishima almost passed on the experience as well, but bullying from Hinata and Noya had somehow convinced them to come along. 

The website for this place had been pretty simple; it had a place to purchase tickets, an address, and some spooky “lore” about a farmer that was found mauled to death within the fields next to a bloody chainsaw that hadn’t been enough to protect him. You know, generic Halloween kid stuff.

“Hey, shut up!” Daichi shouts, getting the team to end their yelling and general bickering. They all gather around, silhouettes an eerie white and orange from the moon and low lanterns that hang at the entrance of the footpath that leans downhill to their destination.

The same lights shine on a simple wooden sign that reads  _ HAUNTED CORN MAZE _ .

They had ordered their tickets online due to having a larger group, and Suga hands them out as Daichi addresses the team. For Halloween, though, the area is eerily quiet. No one else is running down the path, and their bus is the only thing in the parking lot aside from two sedans and a large truck. There isn’t even anything for Daichi to talk over now that the group around him has quieted.

“According to the website, the maze takes two hours to complete. We’ll stay together as a group, and we’ll be counting off to make sure no one gets lost. Once we’re done, we’ll get back on the bus and go home. Got it?”

There’s a chorus of agreement, and before any of them can start to move, Hinata and Kageyama have already started racing down the dirt path. Noya laughs and follows, Suga yells at them to be careful, and Ukai exhales a cloud of smoke to hide his laughter. Daichi sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as the team and all their chaos head down and out of sight.

“You’re coming too, right?” he prompts, subtly stepping upwind to avoid tobacco hitting him in the face. 

Ukai raises a brow, pinching his cigarette in his teeth as he crosses his arms. “Hell no. You’re not getting me into a cornfield.”

He frowns, his headache throbbing briefly as he realizes that he’s going to have to play the role of chaperone. “Why not?”

“Corn demons,” he says, as if he was pointing out something as obvious as the heavy full moon. 

“Corn demons,” Daichi repeats slowly, incredulous. 

“Yup. I’ll be here with the bus. If you aren’t back in two hours, I’m getting the hell out of here.”

He knows there isn’t any reason to argue; he’s learned it’s better just to agree to whatever Ukai says. Takeda is usually the one that can convince him, but Daichi isn’t about to spend another second talking about  _ corn demons _ . It’s stupid, and as he starts the descent of the surprisingly steep path, he can’t help but keep glancing at the field.

Everyone has already reached the bottom, crowded around someone in all black and a sign in front of the corn that says  _ START _ with the painting of a cute little ghost and a dangling lantern. The cornfield itself stretches out before them, much larger than Daichi would have suspected. It takes up the entire small valley between the parking lot and the opposite hill of the freeway. Daichi isn’t too good with eyeballing measurements, but he would put money on being able to fit six or seven copies of the gymnasium within.

No wonder it takes two hours.

When he reaches the bottom, everyone is still bustling with energy. The hooded figure (masked, too, because Daichi sees nothing but black under the hood) takes his ticket to add to the pile of everyone else’s. Wordlessly, the figure sweeps an arm around in an  _ after you _ gesture.

Asahi picks Noya up off the ground to keep him from bolting inside, and Hinata trips over Tsukkishima’s foot when he tries to do the same.

“Hang on, hang on!” Daichi shouts, swatting Tanaka on the back of the head and ignoring his  _ “I didn’t even do anything!”  _ The entrance to the maze is wide enough for all of them to gather, but branches off into three different paths that are all so narrow that they  _ have _ to go single file. He hears Kageyama say something about how making constant right turns will get you to the end. Daichi turns to ask the figure if such a thing is true, but the figure isn’t standing there anymore. They’re gone.

Probably went to sit in their car like Ukai.

“Alright! We’ll go single file, in order of jersey number. Kageyama, we’ll use your method. When I say  _ count _ , everyone count off your number in order so we know if anyone gets lost. If you do get lost-” Shit. What if someone gets lost? “-stay put and we’ll backtrack. Just stay in line, and let’s all get out of this in one piece.”

It takes more time and effort that anyone would like to admit to get in line. They start facing the path to the right, and once everyone seems settled, Daichi shouts for them to count off, starting with his.

“One!”

“Two!”

“Th-three.”

“Foooour!”

“Ha! Five!”

“Nine!”

“Ten-ten!”

“Just once, idiot. Eleven!”

“T-Twelve… Um, Daichi?”

Daichi leans over, trying to see Yamaguchi at the back. “What is it?”

“I… I don’t wanna be last in line.”

A few of them snicker, but Tsukkishima wordlessly grabs him by the arm and pulls him, swapping spots. 

“Better?” Daichi tries.

“Yeah. Thanks, Tsukki.”

“Let’s just get this over with.”

Daichi leads them down the path, poking on his phone to open the flashlight application. Weird that the staff didn’t provide them with one, considering the hefty ticket price. But at least he had charged his phone before he left, and he knows he’s not the only one with a light source. Someone down the line has one too, and the beam swipes over to occasionally make looming shadows of everyone’s legs.

Haunted mazes are pretty straightforward, even if Daichi has never actually been in one before. It’s a simple concept; trap people in a place where they feel disoriented in the dark, then put on stupid costumes and jump out to make people scream. Except that corn doesn’t do much for hiding, and Daichi can easily look through the leaves at- Well, at more corn. The field is pretty dense, and there’s no leaving the path without taking down a stalk or two. If all else fails and they get lost, at least they could just pick a direction and plow right through if they needed to.

Daichi is so busy thinking about this hypothetical situation that the first jumpscare gets him.

There’s a rev of a chainsaw in the otherwise silent area, making all of them jump and a few of them scream. A man dressed up in a shitty farmer’s costume that’s been thoroughly splashed with blood jumps out in the middle of their line, and Daichi is almost run over by the way Suga shoves at him to  _ move _ . The man eventually gets behind them as they trip and sprint, Daichi hardly remembering that he needs to keep going  _ right _ when the sound finally stops. He’s out of breath, heart thudding, and Suga still hasn’t let go of the back of his jacket.

“Count!” he shouts, once he’s caught his breath.

Suga yanks on his coat. “Two.”

“Three, ohmygod…”

“Fooooour!” Good to see that Noya hasn’t lost his spirit.

“Five!”

“Ni… Nine,” Kageyama pants.

“Ten!” Daichi can’t tell if that’s a laugh or a sob.

“T-twelve.”

“Eleven.”

Daichi exhales, feeling the adrenaline leave him. Shit. Maybe there’s a good reason he’s never come to one of these things. He hears Asahi mutter something, and he glances back to see him holding onto Suga’s jacket the same way Suga is holding Daichi’s. He can see and hear Noya bouncing on the balls of his feet, so he treks on.

The man with the chainsaw certainly did his job. They’re all on edge, and anyone brushing against even a leaf from a cornstalk makes them all jump. It’s stupid and just a cheap scare, Daichi tells himself, yet it still rattled them all. Whatever jumps out at them next, they’ll be ready for.

Except, nothing jumps out.

Nothing jumps out for  _ twenty minutes _ .

It’s the anxiety over waiting that’s the worst, Daichi decides, making another right. He’s lost count of how many rights they’ve taken and the tension in his headache is certainly not going away. Someone in their line sneezes and half of them jump while Tanaka laughs and apologizes, confessing he might be allergic to corn. Which is stupid, but it gets a few laughs. Other than that, though, it’s pretty quiet. Hinata mumbles something to Kageyama or Yamaguchi every now and then, but the silence is making Daichi’s hands sweat.

“Count,” he says. He doesn’t have to yell.

“Two.” Suga’s still holding his jacket.

“Three.”

“Fooooooooour!”

“Five!”

“Nine.”

“Ten!”

“Twelve.”

A pause.

Daichi stops walking.

He turns around, watching the rest of the line do the same until Yamaguchi’s phone light shines on the dirt behind him. There’s a moment of silent confusion, but then the hand holding that light starts to shake.

“He probably turned around and left,” Kageyama offers, punching Hinata on the shoulder so he turns back around.

“We should backtrack,” Yamaguchi says at the same time Asahi whispers “When did he leave?”

In all honesty, it seems very possible that Tsukkishima had gone back to the bus. It is odd that he wouldn’t have said anything to Yamaguchi, though. Daichi checks his phone for the time, sighing. 

“He probably did head back. We’ll keep going. Yamaguchi, see if you can text him. If he did get left behind, he knows we’re making all right turns. Not that we got far. We’ve still got an hour and a half to get through. Let’s go!” He tries to ignore the way Hinata stage-whispers to Yamaguchi to move, heading straight for another right turn.

Finally, in a way that is almost relief, something jumps out at them.

The corn rustles and there’s a shriek before someone in all black like the figure at the entrance launches at them. Hands that are in some kind of werewolf-like gloves lock down on Noya’s arm and the libero screams, but Tanaka’s fight or flight kicks in and he punches the black figure in the face. The corn rustles as it falls back, and then it’s gone.

“Dude, you good?”

“You just punched them!”

“What else was I supposed to do, huh?! I hardly even made contact with the shitty hood!” 

“Are they okay?”

“I dunno, but can we please just keep moving?”

Suga shoves him again and with a deep breath to try to relax, Daichi turns forward again to keep walking. There’s some conversation about what just happened, but he stops so fast that Suga and Asahi both run into him when he hears “that’s a lot of blood.”

His flashlight sweeps down the line, finding a couple other lights trained on Noya. He’d had the sleeves of his jacket rolled up, forearms bare. There’s a thick mark on the arm the figure had grabbed, and blood is beading and dripping from it. Daichi shoves his way down the line to take a look. Thankfully, the scratch isn’t deep enough to need stitches. There are two scratches that are no more than raised red lines, but it’s the center one that broke the skin enough to bleed. At least Noya knows himself well enough to carry a first aid kit, so Daichi cleans it with an alcohol wipe that makes Noya hiss, and then carefully pads it with gauze and a large bandaid. 

“I didn’t think it was legal for the actors to hurt someone,” Kageyama says as Noya starts tucking the kit away. “Why would someone wear gloves with real nails like that?”

“I dunno, but it’s kinda awesome. Thanks for defending me, Ryu,” Noya giggles, his eyes still wide with adrenaline. He looks to Daichi, pushing him with his injured arm. “Come on! Let’s keep going!”

Daichi shuffles back to the front, wiping any of Noya’s blood from his hands onto his pants before using his phone to light up the path again. After a few moments, he calls for another count.

“Two.”

“Three”

“Four for four!”

“Five!”

“Nine.”

Another pause.

“Stupid Hinata! Dumb! Hinata, you’re supposed to say-”

Kageyama chokes off into silence.

“H… Hinata? Yamaguchi? Where’d you go?”

Daichi’s stomach drops. Losing Tsukkishima and Yamaguchi could be easily explained by the former dragging the latter back the way they had come to wait it out in the bus with Ukai. But Hinata?

Hinata wouldn’t leave without saying something, especially to Kagyama.

Daichi starts to turn, but there’s a heavy rustle in the corn and a shriek that sounds just like the figure that had scratched Noya. Only this time, the fear is real, because now they know that those gloves aren’t as fake as they ought to be.

He doesn’t need Suga to shove him to start moving. He’s not sure who’s screaming this time, but it might even be himself. He tears down the path so fast that he’s kicking up clods of dirt, nearly falling when he swerves around the next right turn. He feels Suga let go of his jacket, but still hears running and someone (probably Tanaka) screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs. Two more rights and when Daichi feels like he’s about to collapse, Suga grabs his jacket and yanks him to a stop.

They all wheeze and pant, taking a moment to catch their breath. Daichi wets his lips, and his voice shakes as he calls for another count. Suga just tugs on his jacket, wheezing out a “two” while Asahi does the same.

“F-four! Ho-ooo-oly shit.”

“Fuckin’.  _ Ugh _ . Five.”

Daichi waits a moment for Kageyama to catch his breath.

And then another moment.

And another.

“He’s fucking  _ gone _ ! What the hell is going on?!” Tanaka snaps, grabbing Noya by the arm as if to keep him from vanishing too. “Kageyama!” he calls behind them, voice lost to the grand expanse of the field. “Hinata! Yamaguchi! Tsukki!”

They all collectively hold their breath as Tanaka repeats the screams of their names one more time. 

There is no answer.

“We gotta go back,” Suga whispers, as if speaking too loudly will make the figure appear again. “We have to go  _ back,  _ Daichi.”

“I know,” he whispers back, before flashing his light down at Tanaka. “Tanaka! Start going back!”

“What if it’s still back there?” Asahi wheezes, looking ready to actually pass out. He’s shaking so bad that he just shoves his phone into his pocket instead of trying to use it.

Daichi checks the time on his phone and nearly chokes. How has it already been an hour and a half? There’s no way! It feels like forty-five minutes or maybe one meager hour, but to say they only have thirty minutes left? And why is his phone already down to fifteen percent?

If it really has taken that long to make it this far, it’s going to take just as long to go back. Ukai had threatened to drive off without them in two hours, but there’s no way he actually would. He acts all tough, but the entire team knows he’s soft for them. Why else would he still be sticking around as their coach? Ukai wouldn’t leave them. If he does, they can always call him or a cab or  _ something _ to get back to campus, because Daichi sure as hell knows they’re not going to walk all eighty thousand kilometers back there in the dark. 

Then again, if it’s been an hour and a half, that means they’re only thirty minutes from the exit.

_ Shit _ .

“You said we would backtrack if anyone-”

Noya’s sentence is cut off by a  _ howl _ . It’s not a wolf, though, or anything canine like they’ve heard before. No, not at all. It’s gutteral, crackling like static, and either very loud or very close.

There’s another large rustle in the corn.

“FUCK!”

Tanaka and Noya break off in the direction they came, but carnal fear grabs Daichi by the throat and he bolts forward. He feels Suga’s hand leave his jacket again at the speed, but he still hears feet behind him, so he keeps going. Right, right, right, another right-

He trips on something- a rock, or maybe a divet in the ground -and goes sprawling into the dirt. He hits a few stalks of corn on his way down, and Suga trips and falls over him a second later. They both groan at the impact, Daichi sitting up to regain himself as Suga stands, dusting dirt off of his jeans. Daichi’s phone fell out of his hand, but the light shines straight up to illuminate the corn. Suga pats his pockets, then groans.

“Damn it. My phone…”

Daichi picks up his own phone, inspecting the screen for any cracks and finding nothing but dirt. He wipes it off on his shirt and Suga helps him stand, both of them breathing heavily as Daichi shakily aims the light back down the way they came.

There’s no one behind them.

“Shit,” Daichi pants. His ankle aches from falling, but at least it’s not a sprain and there weren’t anymore rocks in the dirt for him to land on. Suga seems fine too, other than the dirt staining his knees. 

“We gotta go back for them,” Suga insists, his own breath still heavy. He grabs Daichi by the hand, palm sweaty and covered in dirt, and starts leading him back the way they came. Except for the fact that he can’t find his phone, not even in the dirt where they fell, so Daichi resumes the lead with his own. He’d hold Suga’s hand again if not for the fact that he needed both hands for his phone because he’s shaking so badly.

“This isn’t right,” he whispers, hearing Suga hum an assent behind him. “I know we paid for scary, but this… This is too much. It didn’t say anywhere that we would get hurt! They make you sign waivers for that, and we didn’t!” He’s starting to channel his fear into rage, but at least the anger makes him brave. “What if Noya’s cut gets infected? It was pretty deep from being from a  _ prop _ , yanno? That… That’s out of line. I’m not even mad Tanaka punched them. I would’ve done the same… And Tsukki! Did he really just leave? And the others, too. How did we get separated so fast? It doesn’t make any sense!” He huffs, pausing for a moment to catch his breath. Securing his phone in one hand, he reaches blindly behind him for Suga’s hand. 

He feels thin, clammy-cold fingers slide into his, calloused and dry from volleyball and the weather. They squeeze Daichi’s hand and he sighs, letting the contact soothe him. A quick check at his phone clock says they’ve only got ten minutes until the two hour window closes, and he curses softly. He tugs Suga’s hand, hearing his cautious, dragging steps in the dirt behind him. 

“There’s no way it’s been two hours,” he mutters, coming to a stop when they reach the spot Noya was attacked. There’s a small splatter of blood on one of the stalk leaves that hangs into the path. It makes him nauseous. “This is messed up, Suga…”

“Daichi!”

Daichi snaps his head up so quick that it’s a wonder he doesn’t break his neck. It was Noya’s voice, shrill and loud. He can’t see him, but he hears rustling in the corn.

“Daichi! Suga! We’re over here!” Asahi yells, coming from the same direction.

“We can see your light! Come on!”

And sure enough, there’s a flashlight beam winking at them through the stalks of corn. A few of them, actually, and Daichi feels the knotted tension of anger and fear leave him. He sighs, loosening his posture and sliding his hand out of Suga’s. 

“Thank _god_.”

“God has nothing to do with it.”

Daichi frowns, turning around to face Suga. “What do you-”

Daichi sees a pair of red eyes beneath the hood as his phone, his light, his only source of  _ anything _ , dies in his shaking hands.

* * *

They've been in the maze for three hours.

Ukai groans, shaking his pack of cigarettes. He’s been chain smoking them all inside of the bus with the window open to ventilate. He knows that his superstitions are just superstitions, but the longer the team takes to do this stupid fucking corn maze, the more worried he’s getting. He’ll go gray, at this rate! Either that or he’s going to smoke his last three cigs and get lung failure. 

With the window open, he had heard a handful of screams and fake chainsaw sounds and some howling effect. Spooky, yeah, but it’s the sudden lack of noise that’s starting to worry him. It’s been silent for nearly the entirety of the past hour, only broken by an owl cooing, perched on the singular lamp post of the parking lot. 

He texted Daichi a couple times, and even sent a mass text out to everyone that had gone into the maze. He also texted Takeda because he’s worried, but it’s midnight already and he knows he’s definitely in bed by now. He could text Kiyoko or the boys that stayed home, but what good would that do? 

Should he call the police at this rate?

He’s just about to before movement catches his eye. It scares the shit out of him (but if you ask, he was just  _ startled _ ) because right outside of the bus doors is Daichi, surrounded by the rest of the team.

“Shit, don’t sneak up like that,” Ukai scolds, grabbing the lever to open the door. Daichi gives an apologetic smile, stepping aside to let the rest of the group go first. They all look thoroughly exhausted and shaken up, but that’s to be expected after three hours in a haunted maze. They’re all quiet, too, which is a little unsettling, but it wouldn’t be the first time that they had moped around in silence. Maybe they all got a scolding from Daichi, or maybe they didn’t get their money’s worth.

Daichi is the last to board, but only after glancing back at the maze as if to ensure no one got left behind. He nods at Ukai as he boards and the door shuts, but stays standing by Ukai’s seat. He frowns up at him, leaning back.

“What? I had the window open,” he defends, sure that the third-year is about to complain about it.

Daichi just smiles, that creepy smile he gets when he’s mad. “No, it’s fine. Thank you for waiting for us.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just go sit down.” Ukai waves him away, grabbing his seatbelt and readjusting his posture. He starts up the bus, the engine coughing and choking before coming back to life, and Ukai checks the back mirror to see if everyone has taken their seat.

All he sees are red eyes staring back at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Corn demons or dogmen? Discuss.
> 
> [I do commissions!](https://degradedpsychotic.carrd.co/)


End file.
